Mumbai’s Shivaji Maharaj Memorial will be the world’s tallest statue

Govt okays 18m increase to take it to 210m

The proposed Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj memorial off the coast of Mumbai will have the world’s tallest statue. Earlier this week, the Maharashtra Coastal Zone Management Authority cleared a proposal to increase the height from the earlier proposed 192 metres. When it is ready, the statue of the Maratha warrior king will be 210 metres tall, two metres more than the Spring Temple Buddha statue in China. The change comes with added costs—the project will now be billed for Rs4,000 crore, up from Rs3,600 crore as per initial plans.

Dedicated to Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj, the statue is to be built in the Arabian sea, about 1.5km off the coast of Mumbai. In December 2016, Prime Minister Narendra Modi had laid the foundation stone for the memorial. The first phase of the memorial will include a temple, hospital and a museum highlighting important aspects of the Maratha king’s life and teachings. The entrance of the Shivaji Maharaj memorial will be modelled on Maharashtra’s Raigad fort. The construction work for phase 1 is scheduled to commence from January 2018 and completed by 2021. Plans for the second phase of the project include building a helipad and an iMAX theatre among other things.

The Shivaji memorial has been mired in controversy, with stiff opposition from environmentalists, fisherfolk and some citizen groups, over impact on marine ecosystems and the staggering costs.